Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts

Heavy Burger is a strange and clever way to mix up old Data East licenses into something totally new. Arming the protagonist from BurgerTime with the weapons from Heavy Barrel, Heavy Burger is a one to four player tug of war that takes place across seven different arcade machines. With deathmatch rules, you control a Blue or Red team to grab or steal a money bag. You follow arrows to the bank and deposit the money bag to win, but along the way you need to dodge bullets and pits, and defeat enemies you’d perhaps recognise from not only Heavy Barrel and BurgerTime, but the likes of Karate Champ and Nitro Ball too. All the backgrounds, animations and assets are from the old source material, so it all feels pretty familiar and surprisingly feels suitably in place too. In a twin-stick retro-themed multiplayer shooter, shifting from a game like Bad Dudes then onto a game like Side Pocket and then onto a game like Lock ‘N Chase is wild, daft and fun.

Despite all it’s cleverness it runs out of steam quickly though, and I felt that I’d had by fill of it after about an hour. This lack of longevity and depth fails to reflect its usual price tag, as I think it’s meant to cost around fifteen quid. That just costs too much. However I see these Johnny Turbo’s Arcade games go down in price fairly often, and I’m sure Heavy Burger will be included in another sale soon enough. That’s the point to download it, and I don’t think you’d regret it. 7/10.

That's genuinely inspired.  I'm surprised that more games haven't gone down the Wreck-It Ralph approach now that you've mentioned it.  Some real mileage to be worked with there...  Of course Nintendo might get more out of it than Data East.

In the grand old tradition of following up Cappa reviews with games he'd hate:



Not a line from the new Matrix film, but a truly stonking follow-up to a game that I thought I was cooler on than many.  The World Ends With You (a.k.a. TWEWY 1) is a cult favourite, but I look back on it and shrug.  In retrospect I'm a victim of where I left TWEWY 1: in a postgame that combined a fighting system that was as confusing as it was innovative with hard-as-nails bosses, when I was too young and stupid to understand everything at work.  That, or play a duff game of fantasy Pogs.  

NEO TWEWY fixes those issues.  (Apart from being too young, time fixed that.  Oh boy did it fix that...)

The fighting in this is phenomenal.  It might well be the best RPG battle system I've played.  Team-based real-time RPGs always struggle to give you control over everyone, but NEO TWEWY makes it enjoyable - and more than that, spectacular.  Beams fly!  Blades swish!  A bear is clouted across the screen and smashes into a shopfront!  (At this point Buska stops reading.)  Everything explodes in a burst of fire, or ice, or time!  The battlefield becomes a sea of psychadelic splashes and explosions that looks like it's going to dissolve into button-mashing, but doesn't.  And that's on the battelfield: in TWEWY, every battle is either a story battle or you have to go looking for it.  It wipes out a lot of the genre's tedium.  Frankly, it's stupid that more RPGs haven't done the same.  Meanwhile in the inventory, attacks are linked to pin badges, and picking different pins can completely change the feeling of the fight.  It's versatile and clever while feeling fun and never depriving you of control.  The fighting may not be as innovative as TWEWY 1's, but it's flashier and it doesn't make you play two games at once.  I think it's better.

The rest of the package is no less special.  The writing and characterisation are just plain good, and bringing back the fan fave character from TWEWY 1 early days was an inspired move.  The voice acting...  Well I played with American VA all game, and it was only partly because of nostagia for TWEWY 1.  Speaking of nostalgia for TWEWY 1, one thing I fully expected was the sense of style.  The visuals are beautiful, almost cel-shaded, and like I said it pops and sparkles when you're fighting.  And it's all wrapped up in a soundtrack full of bangers: this, again, was no surprise.

It's tough to pick substantial flaws from NEO TWEWY.  I thought the loading screens were going to get on their nerves, but actually they mostly just made for decent pacing.  Characters I thought were annoying grew on me, with one example becoming my fave by the end.  Beyond that...  There's one repeating mission type that becomes a bit tedious by the third iteration; the 'mind dive' battles are grating difficulty spikes (on Hard at least) that you really ought to be able to quick-retry; the hiding enemies become a lesson in how the targeting system can't quite keep up with the action; and Shibuya isn't that great a world to roam around for an RPG.  It's neither big enough to amaze with scale, nor detailed enough to impress with tactility.

But then, that's what I expected after playing TWEWY 1.  Likewise the cut-scenes mostly being told through portraits and speech bubbles, and maybe limited enemy variety.  Perhaps the biggest flaw of NEO TWEWY is that it's at its best if you've played the prequel, both in getting the references and in setting expectations.  Tha prequel was niche at the time (and was ported badly to Switch), making this super-niche.  Is it still worth playing if you haven't played TWEWY 1?  I'd say so.  The fighting and aesthetics are phenomenal regardless.  And if you did play TWEWY 1?  You should have played this already.  It's excellent, and it doesn't have fantasy Pogs.

Balla wrote:

The fighting in this is phenomenal. It might well be the best RPG battle system I've played.

You have piqued my interest with this statement. I did have this on the DS back in the day and after spending some time in Tokyo in 2006, the Shibuya setting really grabbed me when I was obsessed with anything Japanese. However, I don't remember anything about the actual game. Might have to check this out on PS4, or would you say that playing in handheld is part of the charm? Guessing it doesn't play out over two screens anymore.

I... don't know. I played a lot of it on handheld, personally, but that's just convenience. The battling feels like it scales up really well to the big screen, what with all the immense spectacle, but the cut-scenes being talking heads (most of the time) feels very handheld.

Moyles played it on PS4 and enjoyed it well enough, but Moyles luuuuuuurves the series. I think the loading pauses might be less on PS4. It played smooth enough in handheld though!

Sorry to interrupt the WEWY chat, just one question:

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Heavy Burger is a strange and clever way to mix up old Data East licenses into something totally new. Arming the protagonist from BurgerTime with the weapons from Heavy Barrel, Heavy Burger is a one to four player tug of war that takes place across seven different arcade machines. With deathmatch rules, you control a Blue or Red team to grab or steal a money bag. You follow arrows to the bank and deposit the money bag to win, but along the way you need to dodge bullets and pits, and defeat enemies you’d perhaps recognise from not only Heavy Barrel and BurgerTime, but the likes of Karate Champ and Nitro Ball too.

Is there a specific old game the money bag bit's based on? If so, this would potentially answer one more question I have in my mind about old computer games that ripped off arcades.

Balladeer wrote:

In the grand old tradition of following up Cappa reviews with games he'd hate

It's not that I'd hate these games, it's just that you overrate them by about eight marks.

Jimbob wrote:

Is there a specific old game the money bag bit's based on? If so, this would potentially answer one more question I have in my mind about old computer games that ripped off arcades.

Lock 'N Chase, I'm sure?

Ah right! Lock n Chase isn't quite the same I was thinking of. Well I've just wasted everyone's time there

Tin Pin Slammer was ace though

Balladeer wrote:

I... don't know.  I played a lot of it on handheld, personally, but that's just convenience.  The battling feels like it scales up really well to the big screen, what with all the immense spectacle, but the cut-scenes being talking heads (most of the time) feels very handheld.  

Moyles played it on PS4 and enjoyed it well enough, but Moyles luuuuuuurves the series.  I think the loading pauses might be less on PS4.  It played smooth enough in handheld though!

Yeah, the game works totally fine on a TV as opposed to playing it in handheld. If anything, it makes the spectacular battles Balla described above even more of, well, a spectacle!

OrangeRakoon wrote:

Tin Pin Slammer was ace though

This is the truth and the omission of Tin Pin Slammer from the sequel is a fucking travesty.

Tin Pin Slammer would have been fine as an optional side-extra.  As a barrier to the rest of the postgame it was wank.



Also I finished the campaign mode of WarioWare: Get It Together!  Have they always been this short?  I think maybe they have, and I've just got more games to be getting on with than I used to so I don't have much incentive to chase playtime outside the main campaign.  

Anyway, it's fine.  Same craziness, same good craziness - just less than I thought there would be.  It is probably the least fun and madcap of the three I've played though, hindered by the lack of real new tech to harness.  Touched had the touch screen and dual screens (and microphone ), Smooth Moves had the Wiimote Form Baton, and Together has... two people I guess.  It's really galling that they didn't do anything with the HD Rumble like 1-2-Switch.  

The slimness of the game is the real bust though, at least in single-player.  I'm sure it would be lots of fun to play with other people, who I'm not with because - y'know, pandemic.  You do get coins, that unlock toys, that unlock customisation options in what feels a bit like the obfuscation found in some microtransaction systems - but I think that's it?  Touched had fun touch toys and minigames to unlock.  So basically it's chasing high scores and getting achievements for the sake of chasing high scores and getting achievements, or to get a slightly different colour for Dribble's plane.  Little disappointing all told, with emphasis on the 'little', but I'm sure other people will like the score chases more than me, and maybe I shouldn't have expected anything else.  I did though, and paid about £35 for the privilege. 6/10

Balladeer wrote:

Tin Pin Slammer would have been fine as an optional side-extra.  As a barrier to the rest of the postgame it was wank.

Sounds like someone wasn't very good at Tin Pin Slammer...

I've been swithering on whether or not to bother picking up a copy of Get it Together or to just seek out a copy of Gold instead. It sounds like I'd get more bang for my buck with Gold, then?

I shouldn't have to be good at bloody fantasy Pogs to finish a JRPG. Or, er, finish a JRPG's postgame I guess.

I haven't played Gold: the idea of a bunch of rehashed microgames didn't appeal.  Cappa's played both, I think - see what he says.

For what it's worth, I've not played much in the way of the WarioWare series so they wouldn't be rehashed for me!

Balladeer wrote:

the three I've played though

Have you not played either the GBA or Gamecube ones? Oh, you owe it to yourself to play those original microgames dude!

I’ve not finished WarioWare Get It Together yet, but I’m far enough into it that I know I’d recommend most other WarioWare games over it. Get It Together is a good WarioWare game, but it’s not a great one. It’s just not as unpredictable, imaginative, silly or as funny as the original on GBA/GameCube, the GBA sequel, the Wii game and perhaps the DS one too. WarioWare Gold on 3DS has the lot – and it’s less than half the price of Get It Together too.

NEO: The World Ends With You would be an ideal game to trade in for part-exchange towards the first WarioWare

Thy've only gone and made an emotional interactive game about emotions this time over umm time abilities for instance. I really dug LiS TC but by now with a lot of these types of games you know if you're going to like it or not even if I say this has a great soundtrack, story, vo etc

Maybe the price is a bit steep as its £49.99rrp (I got for £39) and took me 6-7hrs to finish then go back and get the odd collectable for the Platinum. Yeah! I played on PS5 not Xbox, which not really going to be much difference in terms of the game, however does have some neat uses with the DualSense that could also be it being new & shiny for me still though.

Is it massively shorter than the original then, Mas? Might be one for a sale if so.

Buskalilly wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

the three I've played though

Have you not played either the GBA or Gamecube ones? Oh, you owe it to yourself to play those original microgames dude!

I haven't! I wasn't tremendously adventurous in that era to be honest, if it looked slightly odd I was probably shunning it and sticking to the fourth playthrough of Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire. That has resulted in a few big regrets - including another Cappuccino Kid favourite, Skies of Arcadia, which of course goes for stupid money now.

JayMoyles wrote:

Is it massively shorter than the original then, Mas? Might be one for a sale if so.

It didn't seem shorter and had 5 episodes which episode 3 is great.

I think the GBA one was an Ambassador Programme game, if you happen to have those Balla?

masofdas wrote:

Maybe the price is a bit steep

Steep? That's effing vertical. It's a series that's always on sale, and was originally released episodically then later released all together in one package for £30 tops, so that does feel like a lot of money for "that type of game". Is this series still considered Indie? I adored the original title, but even that was ropey and didn't look great for a 360 era game. What's this like as a PS5 game, Mas? Is it much different visually or performance-wise?

When LiS was released together on disc it also came with artbook etc and don't think it was near £50 more £30 which think would be fine price.

On PS5 it has performance issues running around town FPS drops often, I did have ray tracing on but this only changes the resolution not performance.

Then guess it's DualSense features like the trigger rumbles and so does the haptic feedback, along with the lights turning red for anger.

Don't forget LiS and BtS are betting remastered which is weird that PS4 have the OG and Remaster version on it.

Double Post as I just finished another 5hr or so game but one that isn't £49.99rrp (True Colors is the better game but value & all that) but on Game Pass


The Artful Escape is Annapurna at their publishing best, sure we've had a few games this year from them with the likes of Twelve Minutes with its all-star cast (TAE has a pretty good cast as well with  Lena Headey, Carl Weathers and Jason Schwartzman) but when I think Annapurna TAE is the sort of game I think of.

As it is a simple game in terms of gameplay as you move through the levels, it's everything else that makes it top-notch be it the music, VO, art style, story all combine to make a weird Ziggy Stardust x Wes Anderson thing.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox



You are quite probably aware of the Ys series - Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana is out on most platforms and was critically pretty well received. Not a stone cold classic, but it played well. If you enjoyed it, you'd probably enjoy Ys IX, because it's not significantly different.

It starts, as a lot of the Ys games do (apparently - I've only played these two) with red-haired adventurer Adol rocking up to a new place with hunky blue-haired pal Dogi. The place in question is Balduq, a city with a big fuck-off prison right in the middle of it. Adol is pretty much immediately arrested on suspicion of involvement with soldiers going missing at sea, a reference to his seafaring exploits in Ys VIII. (These references are nothing more than Easter eggs, though. You don't need to have played the previous games to get anything that's going on here; it's a standalone adventure.) Anyway, Adol needs to break out of the prison, and work out some shady secrets about it.

However - and bear with me - Adol is also afflicted with a curse that turns him into a 'Monstrum'. Basically it's the conceit that means he gets flashy powers. You end up teaming up with a range of other Monstrums too, each with a power - or 'gift' - that helps you traverse the world. Adol's allows him to zip up to ledges in a flash; another allows you to run vertically up walls; another is like a 'third eye' that reveals secrets, etc. As you recruit them into your team, it allows you to explore more easily.

It's this focus on exploration that makes Ys particularly addictive in my eyes. Rather than it being an obscenely huge world, maps are manageable sizes and have a range of things for you to track down around the city, like graffiti, hidden petals (blue glowy things like from Xenoblade), and landmarks. Each of these things then has a separate NPC who will record how many you've found, and as you find more and more of them, you check in with these characters to get rewarded with useful and unique items that boost your stats or help you in battle. The game also records a percentage of the map you've cleared, which you can report to an ally too. It's a simple and effective way to encourage you to use all the characters' special powers to explore every inch of the map.

There are a number of NPCs that you recruit who will hang out in the Dandelion, a pub that acts as your base. A few of them serve helpful purposes - like crafting useful stuff out of random shit you've collected, or acting as a centralised shop so that you don't have to run around to all the separate stalls across the city, whereas some of them are just hanging out or act as storyline fodder. But all of them will help you in raid battles.

Fundamentally, raid battles work in pretty much the same way as they did in Ys VIII. The difference here is that you do them to break barriers that block off different parts of the map. You collect 'Nox' - basically, points that you collect after completing quests and fighting monsters - and once you have enough, you enter a raid battle to smash the barrier. The NPCs support you by giving you buffs while you're battling. The more you've raised your affinity with them through quests and chats, the better these buffs will be.

The battles themselves are Tales-esque - it's a real-time action battle system. Your character has one of three attack types (certain monsters will be weak to one of the three, but a lot of them are neutral). You can do a normal attack with Y, or a special attack with R and one of the four lettered buttons. You end up with loads of options for these specials, but the more you use an attack, the more powerful it will get as you can level it up. You can also use some of the character's gifts in battle - Adol, for example, can use his zip-up-to-a-ledge power to zip straight over to an enemy and whack them in the chebs. The default difficulty is pretty easy, but there are loads of harder modes if you fancy.

So basically, the battles are reminiscent of the Tales series, and the exploration and affinities are reminiscent of Xenoblade. However, it's not a huge, sprawling adventure. Everything feels totally manageable, I suspect because you're actively encouraged to explore and do sidequests to buff out your party and push the story along. There are only, like, 4 signposted sidequests to do in each chapter, so it's easy to do them all, and doing them helps you out in the long run too. I finished the main game after about 35 hours, so it's still a decent length, but other JRPGs are twice the length at least!

It's not a looker, by any means - you can tell it doesn't have huge production values, and it looks like it was made many years ago. The performance also isn't amazing on Switch - I didn't find it to be unplayable at any point, but the framerate does drop when there's a lot going on in battle or when you're traversing a large area like Balduq. Plus, setting it in a huge prison city means a lot of the game is a bit brutal and grey, compared to the tropical island setting of Ys VIII (which, while still a bit rough-looking, was at least colourful).

I did quite enjoy the story - while not groundbreaking in any sense, it took a few twists and turns that I didn't expect. The characters relied on some typical tropes, but each had enough depth for me to not mind too much. And it just didn't feel as po-faced as so many JRPGs do. There's almost a sense that it knows it's a little bit rough around the edges and that it's not a 10/10 video game, with a self-awareness where corners had to be cut (like when there was a peculiar link between cutscenes which just consisted of a bit of text explaining a "comical" bullfighting scene between a new bullfighter and a calf). Or maybe I'm just projecting.

Even if I am, though, I still enjoyed it a lot. It's not particularly an advancement from Ys VIII - more a sideways move - but the exploration and battles were a lot of fun, and if you nail those, you've still got a fun RPG.

Rum wrote:

So basically, the battles are reminiscent of the Tales series, and the exploration and affinities are reminiscent of Xenoblade.

Even if I find the comment about frame rate drops a tad concerning in a game that doesn't look like it moves mountains visually, this alone means I should probably get around to playing it at some point.